


A Bedtime Story

by automatonBoy



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Fluff, Gen, chapter five spoilers, not a romance but the ships are mentioned, they could be a nephew but let's say niece
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-13 23:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/automatonBoy/pseuds/automatonBoy
Summary: Joey's niece is having trouble falling asleep.





	1. Bedtime

**Author's Note:**

> After that ending and after the screaming subsided my first thought was of all the cute family content that was going to come out now.  
> And well,  
> Be the change you want to see in the world, am I right?

Sleep could never seem to come easily for the youngest Stein. Not without help. 

Her mother fussed over her constantly as an infant. Holding and rocking her like any mother would. But as time wore on it was to no avail. With each passing night it became harder to coax her eyes to shut, turning bedtime into an exhausting ordeal for everyone involved.

The first solution was music. Singing or humming as they rocked in the wooden chair by her bed or stood swaying with her in their arms would do the trick after enough time. But as she got older the time would stretch and it became an issue yet again. They experimented. Found that records wouldn't cut it and whistling caused restlessness (no matter how many times Joey tried). 

When it came down to which songs in particular, any would do. But of course when the task of putting her to bed was delegated to two uncles or another mother there was one song that they all knew.  
Linda wasn't impressed with their lack of variety. 

Without music of any kind, nights were restless. As she grew old enough to speak she would close her eyes just to open them again and babble. Her gaze hopping from one corner of the room to the next. 

Nearly every night she was sung to until one fateful day as she was nearing the age of five. That night family was visiting, and family still had to earn their keep.  
But before her uncle could start the nightly ritual, she asked him a question. He frowned in thought, lowered them both into the rocking chair beside her bed, and then smiled as he rocked on the heel of his good leg and began to slowly weave a tale he knew best.  
She had sat there in his lap, enraptured the entire time. His words spun around her head as the ups and downs of trepidation and action mixed with rocking back and forth. His voice low then high. He steered her mind down halls that twisted and turned, shadows that bent and ink that glowed until soon her eyes began to follow a similar pattern. Open. Then shut. Open. Then shut.  
It wasn't long before the rocking slowed, and the tale closed with a hush. Her breathing steady, face slack and drooling on his shoulder.  
He gently rose from his seat and tucked her into her bed. Smiling in wonderment and awe at the power his story held.

He had waltzed out of the room, grinning wide and proclaiming as loud as he dared that he _was _the best uncle. And oh how wrong they were to doubt his ability as a caretaker in putting her to sleep.__

__Linda had laughed, and suggested he bored her poor child to exhaustion with that same damned tune he always tried. Joey just shrugged, smiling still as he suggested that she must not care to hear how he had accomplished such a feat without spending an hour killing his vocal cords. Wouldn't it be nice to put her to bed in around twenty minutes?_ _

__He was smug about it the rest of the week._ _

__(He told his sister his trick the night he and Henry were meant to leave the next morning. “I told her a story” he whispered, “Invest in a few good books." he paused "But don't get her Harold and the Purple Crayon, I want to get her that.”)_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know that book was that old. I looked up kids books of the era and when I saw that I _knew _I had to include it. A crayon that can draw things into existence seemed fitting. I always wanted a purple crayon as a kid, I always pictured drawing a door that'd lead me somewhere magical.__


	2. Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's really not fair

Visits to Uncle Joey’s are the best, she reasoned. The apartment is smaller than Uncle Henry’s house, but the bright red wood and the pretty pale flowers always catch her eye. And Uncle Joey lets her watch TV longer than she can at home. And Uncle Joey lets her color at his drawing table when Uncle Henry says she can’t because there’s ‘work-stuff’ covering his. And Uncle Joey tells the best stories. The best _story _. Over and over, whenever she visits or when he stops by.__

__Every time it feels so new and fun, but there are always parts that stay the same: it happens in his old animation studio, Uncle Henry leaves and comes back, and no one likes Uncle Joey._ _

__Which doesn't seem very fair to her. Sometimes Alice or Sammy or the Projector helps Uncle Henry, sometimes monster Bendy is really a cute little devil, and sometimes Uncle Henry is the bad guy along with Uncle Joey. But Uncle Joey is _always _evil.  
It doesn’t make sense, she thinks he’s a good guy. She loves him, so why don’t his stories do too?___ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kids are pure and it takes them a bit to understand grey areas and how "Someone can do something really bad and then turn around and do something good" is a Thing.  
> Also how could she think he’s done wrong if he lets her have dessert FIRST _then _dinner? What bad person could do that??__
> 
>    
> Linda: Joey are you spoiling my daughter  
> Joey, handing his niece another piece of candy: no  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> To clarify: Joey and Henry are together but have separate homes and visit when they can. Linda is together, living with, and raising a child with Joey's sister. Henry and Linda are good friends who got legally married to throw suspicion.


End file.
